i am purchasing a pioneer 47a to go with my 950 and i was wondering if any one that has this setup can tell me the proper way to configure the speakers in order to get proper bass control. also am i correct in assuming i will need 6 extra cables? sorry for my ignorance.

For DVD-Audio and SACD playback, you will need six extra analog cables -- and you will want to leave any bass management options set to "off" (all speakers large) so that the analog bass management on the 950 can handle it. For DVD-Video (DD/DTS decoding) and CD playback, you will probably want to rely on the digital output from the 47a to the 950, leaving the 950 to implement digital bass management and D-A conversion. (See Kevin Brown's post in this thread from earlier today -- he has a 47Ai and a 950 configured just this way).

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

i just got back from out of town. thankyou for responding.

holecz- Let me know if/when you have any questions. I agree, it is complicated!

Question for Kevin C Brown: How do you have your subwoofer configured when using the 5.1 analog inputs? I experimented with my cd player analog outputs hooked up to the 5.1 analog input and the bass was really boomy with the analog 80hz xover engaged, is this the double bass anomaly? My main l/r speakers are set to small.

Here's how I did it:

I use the digital crossover in the 950 for all CD/DVD-V sources. (In other words, I use the coax digital connection to pass CD/DVD-V sound to the 950, and let it convert to analog.)

I adjust all the levels in the 950 so that I get about 0 dB with the speakers, and -5 dB for the sub. You have to specifically raise the volume of your sub to do this. (Note, I do *not* reference to 75 or 85 dB. I just "match" levels.) In the 950, I have all speakers as small with respective crossover points: 80 Hz mains, 120 Hz center, 80 Hz surrounds/rears. (I could go 60 Hz for the mains, but just easier to keep them at 80 to match the analog crossoevr in the 950.)

So then for DVD-A and SACD, I pass that to the 950 via the 5.1 analog connection. So in the 47ai I have all speakers set as large, with the sub on. (Let the 950 do the analog crossing over.) Have to make sure "6 ch bypass" is on in the 950.

So in the 47ai, I have all the levels set at about 0 dB for the speakers, and about +5 dB for the sub. Takes care of the 10 dB "boost" that is automatically applied for DD/DTS signals to the 950.

I use Avia to set the levels in the 950, and the Chesky Ultimate (DVD-A / DVD-V) test disc to set levels in the 47ai.

Beware: the sub test tone in the Pioneer player is hosed. Way too low. So if you are using that to set the sub's level, you will get bass that is way too loud.

Kind of complicated, but I was surprised how well it all works together once I got it all set up...


[This message has been edited by Kevin C Brown (edited February 22, 2003).]

I just got a DVD-A last night and have spent most of the day tweaking and listening. I am very impressed with the sound in both hi res stereo and hi res surround but there are two things about the 950 that have me bent. Both have to do with the " 6 Channel Direct" connection. First is the summing of the below 80Hz no matter what you do. Second is if the optical input is set to play stereo then the "6 Channel Direct Mode" only plays in stereo, not 6 channels.
What is up with that? 6 Channel DIRECT should be DIRECT, period, nothing else added (exept volume adjustment), nothing taken away. If the music producer wants 80HZ and below on the .1 channel then they would put it there. The analog bass managment switch only manages bass for everything except the speaker that only plays bass.
As to only getting stereo from the analog 6 channel direct input when a completely different digital input is set to stereo boggles the mind. Why should one effect the other? Again direct should be direct.
Sorry for the rant.

Incorrect. If you engage the 80 Hz analog crossover, everything works as it should.

And as far as the "6 ch bypass", you are correct, but it is a known bug. You have to be in a 5.1 DSP mode before you switch to 6 ch bypass to get all 5.1 channels (DD/DTS/5 ch stereo, for examples).

Same bug also effects the test tone generator. Have to be in a 5.1 (or 6.1 or 7.1) DSP mode, or else you only get 2 channels out of it.

Kevin- It is interesting that the Pioneer allows you to turn on the subwoofer when all speakers are set to large. My JVC does not allow this. Do you get to set a crossover freq.? Seems to me there would be nothing in the sub channel as DVD-A does not have a dolby-like LFE track. Of course this is as it should be to avoid the bass doubling that results from having the player do bass management.

Kevin, I don't understand why you think the statement is incorrect. There seems to be no way to NOT have the 950 sum bass. Bass management switch set to OFF sums bass, switch to ON also sums bass.
I knew about the bug for the test tone but I didn't realize that would also effect the 6 channel inputs. I have read other posts where the questions have been about the difference of using stereo bypass and just two channels of the 6 channel direct. It appears that stereo bypass would be the choice if you want to pass signal as cleanly as possible. Can someone explain why this analog signal path has anything to do with a DSP mode from another source?
After all is said I am getting very good sounds coming from the system but I feel it could be better if I had a little more control.